GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Dan Mullen is paying close attention to his side this spring. The Gators head coach admits he sets a very high bar for each of his players, however, the biggest thing for him is seeing his group progress.

"I guess the biggest one is are you improving," said Mullen about his expectations. "I mean it would be hard to beat my expectations maybe because like I said my expectations are really really high. But are you always headed in that direction to go meet them is how I guess I can live with whatever it is that they’re doing and how they’re improving. So mine is are you improving, are you constantly improving you know what I mean?

"The one that will drive you nuts is if you make a mistake and we correct it, make it a second time maybe because you weren’t 100 percent sure we correct it a second time and if you don’t have it at that point then I start to get frustrated.”

At quarterback, Mullen has seen improvement in both Emory Jones and Feleipe Franks. According to Mullen, Jones is not the same player who walked onto the field last spring as a true freshman.

“I think definitely mentally and understanding the offense right now [are where Jones has improved]," said Mullen. "He’s coming out as a guy that last year was just trying to figure things out and learn it. Even as the year went on we didn’t put everything on his plate going into games, ya know the games we played him in. He had a package so he could get confident in the small number of things, but now he’s getting the reps in everything given the work he’s put in the offseason.

"Just understanding the reads within the offense of what’s going on out there, being comfortable out there, calling it, making checks within the run game, pass game, checks within protection and where he’s going with the ball.”

In the same vein, Mullen is happy with the step forward Franks has taken.

"We're installing the offense and the defense, so with the quarterbacks, he's [Franks] done a pretty good job of knowing the offense at this point,” said Mullen. “Now he's working on how to execute it, how to be a better leader, all of those things, and make quicker decisions. I think he's done a pretty good job of that.”

It helps that both the staff and Franks have one season under their belts together.

"There’s a lot more trust factor of him trusting what we’re doing, of us understanding what he does well, what his skill set is, and him trusting us to put him in a position to be successful. That’s important," said Mullen. "You learn what they do well, what they don’t do as well, and then how do I put them in a position, best position, to be successful. And I think he probably a better understanding of his skill set and how that applies within the offense.”

Although Mullen preaches, "competition at every position every day," Franks is the presumed starter when the season begins. When pressed about a quarterback battle on Tuesday, Mullen reiterated that there is competition all around the field, however, he has not doubted Franks' ability to lead the offense, even after the signal caller's performance against Missouri.

“No there wasn’t," said Mullen when asked if there was an open quarterback battle after the loss to the Tigers. "I pulled him when I pulled our starting tailback and our starting O-line.

"Feleipe was the starter every single game and there was never a doubt one time last season."

According to Mullen, it's about not letting anyone get too comfortable.

“There’s as much competition at the kicker, at the d-tackle, at the linebacker, the quarterback. Every week, everybody is competing for their reps to go play...That’s how the program works at every position," explained Mullen. "Chris Leak was always competing with Tim Tebow. Chris played 70 plays a game, Tim played a couple plays a game. There was always a competition going on. Tim had to compete with Cam Newton. If I would have stayed or he would have stayed, maybe it would have been different by a couple of years down the road.

"That’s how we always run the program. That’s how it’s always worked for me. Maybe the perception of how to do things, in reality is, people think this is how you have to do it, to coach quarterbacks and then really successful quarterback people know how to do it the right way. And how to develop them.”